The present invention relates to an information providing device and an information providing method for proposing a trip to a user.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-73184 describes an example of an information providing device including a spot information database that stores, for example, information related to a stopover candidate spot such as location, type, allowed stopover time, rating, and fee of the stopover candidate spot. Further, such an information providing device has a route information database that stores, for example, information related to the means of transportation necessary for reaching the stopover candidate spot such as means of transportation that can be used to travel in a designated section, a timetable of the means of transportation, and a fee schedule. Further, when the user inputs the necessary information of the planned trip such as the planned stopover spot and planned stopover time, the information providing device refers to the spot information database and the route information database to generate an optimized recommended trip plan satisfying the input condition. This prompts the user to go on trips.
However, in order for the information providing device to generate a recommended trip plan, the user needs to input the necessary information related to the trip. In other words, the information providing device is designed under the assumption that a user is intending to take a trip to a planned stopover spot. For this reason, the information providing device cannot generate a recommended trip plan when the user has not set a planned stopover spot. Therefore, the information providing device is unable to prompt the user to go on a trip when the use has not set a planned stopover spot.